The present invention relates to a clothes dryer for drying clothes in a horizontal drum by mounting the drum rotatably in a cabinet and by supplying heated air into the drum.
In recent years, a clothes dryer is frequently used such that it is combined with a washing machine and arranged above the same or such that it is arranged along the wall of a room. From the points of usability of the washing machine and/or effective use or harmony of the space of the room, there arises a tendency that the clothes dryer is desirably made thinner by reducing the depth of its cabinet. For this desire, a horizontal type rotary drum has to be necessarily made thinner because it occupies the compartment of the cabinet.
Nevertheless, in the clothes dryer of this kind according to the prior art, the heated air in the drum generally flows in the longitudinal direction of the drum, i.e., in the direction of the axis of rotation of the drum. With the heated air flowing in that direction, in case the drum is made thin by reducing its depth (i.e., taken in the longitudinal direction), its diameter, i.e., its vertical length is accordingly enlarged so as to prevent its capacity from being reduced. This invites a fear that the heated air may be discharged out of the drum before it fully occupies the space of the drum from up to down. In other words, the air inlet and outlet holes formed in the front and rear end faces of the drum have their sizes limited so that the heated air flows only through a portion of the drum chamber whereby the heat is not effectively consumed to deteriorate the drying efficiency (Reference should be made to U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,851 and British Pat. No. 1416881). Therefore, there has been conceived a construction in which the drum has its peripheral wall formed with a number of holes so that the heated air may flow therethrough vertically in the drum. According to this construction, the peripheral wall of the drum is formed with a number of holes for the heated air, these holes may become to be clogged with the clothes so that the heated air cannot flow smoothly. This may result in an extended drying operation and reduced drying efficiency (as is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 41-23679).